Jets Q&A: Why didn't Robert Saleh make it a seven-point game late?

Why didn’t Robert Saleh choose to attempt the field goal and try to make it a seven-point game?

With the Jets leading 24-20 in what became a 28-24 Bucs win, Saleh was going for the win. He didn’t want to give the ball back to Tom Brady with a chance to tie or win the game. The Jets ended up doing exactly that because of the costly breakdown on fourth-and-2 from the Tampa Bay 7.

Saleh’s thinking: If the Jets don’t get the first down, the Bucs still have to go 93 yards with just over two minutes remaining and no timeouts left. If the Jets kick the field goal and then kick off, Brady will have better field position.

"They’re backed up," Saleh said. "They actually would have had longer to go. They still need a touchdown. They went for two anyway and got the two. We’re a yard away from keeping the ball out of the greatest player in the history of football’s hands. I’ll take that yard — every time."

Saleh believed the Jets had the right play call to get the first down. Things went sideways when offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur failed to tell Zach Wilson to hand the ball off to Braxton Berrios on a reverse. Wilson had the option to keep it and he did — for no gain.

Saleh said when looking at the play from the end zone, Berrios would have gotten the first down.

Did Wilson feel he executed the play properly?

Yes. He saw an opening in the A-gap and felt he could get the 2 yards.

"I did what I thought was necessary to do right there," he said. "That was in my parameters and Coach LaFleur understands that. It’s easy to say, ‘Hey, I hand that off and we get the first down.’ OK, well, say it’s reversed. Say I handed that off and we get stuffed. Now everyone’s saying, ‘Hey, why didn’t you take the open A-gap?’ It goes both ways."

What was Berrios expecting on that play?

Berrios said in Zach he trusts.

"I fully trust ‘2’ [Wilson] in whatever he does and whatever decision he makes," Berrios said. "He sees the game through a different lens than I do and a different angle than I do. My full trust is in ‘2,’ and if he makes that call, then I’m riding with that call."

What did Wilson and Brady say to each other?

The two quarterbacks, who share the same birthday 22 years apart, exchanged the usual pleasantries after the game.

"He’s a great guy," Wilson said. "I just told him good job, hopefully they do well going on from here. He’s a good dude. He said, ‘Good game, head up and just keep working,’ all those kind of things."

How did Wilson feel overall about the game?

Disappointed, of course, but he believes the Jets showed great improvement.

"It sucks. We were right there," he said. "There’s one play all the way around, one yard all the way around that goes in our favor and that game’s over. We took a step in the right direction. Guys got to understand that. You can’t get too down on yourself because that’s exactly what we needed. We needed to give those guys a game."